body positivity at carleton college and beyond

The perils of weight loss

You’ve probably heard about pop star and American Idol winner Adam Lambert, who gained massive media attention after a provocative performance at the AMAs in which he kissed a man. What you haven’t heard is that a diet made him do it.

It’s true: up on CNN right now, “Adam Lambert says his recent outrageous behavior is due to finally gaining some much-needed self-esteem after slimming down from 250 pounds.”

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I think most people who worry about an obesity crisis — particularly to the extent of wanting any kind of government/collective action to deal with it — are just fine with homosexuality and would count Lambert as a success for their side: “Now that he’s thinner, he’s self confident and free to be himself! He was psychologically weighed down by his literal weight!”

(Not sure how much this also has to do with the pressures on young gay men to be thin gym bunnies in order to get a date. At least in the urban U.S., the gay community might be the only social sphere in which there is more pressure on the men than on the women to be thin.)

I don’t really follow news of this sort, but I was under the impression that the narrative about Lambert was not, “Wow, he’s really confident and self-assured!” but rather, “Wow, he went totally bazonkers and won’t somebody think of the children!” In the interview quoted on CNN, it’s Lambert being somewhat apologetic for acting as he did (though, to be clear, I’m not really concerned about his behavior), not demanding to be accepted.

This is maybe the only time that I’ve read an article that suggested that weight loss might lead to anything other than being a Beautiful Model Citizen, and I found that kind of funny.

Still, point taken. It wasn’t meant to be accusatory.

And also, your point about weight loss pressures on gay men is a really good one, and I’m kind of bummed that we haven’t managed to get anyone to guest post on that yet.

Also, just to clarify–I don’t mean to insinuate in any way that being gay or offering a provocative musical performance is, in my mind, not consistent with being a “Beautiful Model Citizen”. I only meant that his performance had generated a lot of outraged moral hand wringing, and even if a show of his increased self-confidence, for some people it wouldn’t (and didn’t) represent a net good.